‘My Precious! The Cabaret’ Is Totally Insane, And Insanely Good

Ever been watching The Lord of the Rings and thought to yourself, “This is great, but I really wish Gollum was singing Amy Winehouse right now”? If so, My Precious! The Cabaret is the show you’ve been waiting for – and even if not, it’s still a real good time.

Overflowing with indie cabaret goodness, there’s a few ingredients to this show’s unlikely success given how many different elements it mashes together. It’s a jukebox piece of theatre about fame and self-discovery featuring legally distinct Gollum from Tolkien’s famous fantasy franchise – by all accounts, it doesn’t feel like a show that should work.

Nonetheless, there is not a single moment of this show where it feels close to coming off the rails, thanks to Morgan Palmer’s delightfully unhinged lead performance and incredible charisma while dressed as a bald, decrepit and mostly naked Hobbit.

Despite his fiery demise at the end of a certain movie, G’lem (Palmer) and Smiggle (also Palmer) survived. After retelling a version of LOTR that’s a little different to what you remember – a lot more Barnaby Joyce in this adaptation – My Precious! The Cabaret tells the story of this duo’s rise to stardom, the subsequent fall and the journey to self-acceptance.

My Precious! works thanks to its deeply committed lead

As a parodic cabaret, the plot of this show is largely a vehicle for the comedy, which is totally fine – I did not come to this show looking for a heart-wrenching narrative. Even so, Palmer is a genuinely gifted comedian who’s able to weave together these light plot points with comedy, music and just the right dose of audience participation all at once.

It’s hard not to be in awe of the performance Palmer puts up in My Precious!, too. Not only is it intensely physical and quite literally revealing, but he is also able to sing a most eclectic collection of rather vocally challenging songs – like I Will Survive and Rehab – in a flawless Gollum impression. It’s obviously hilarious, but so too is it genuinely impressive.

Someone has to play the music, though, and on-stage maestro ‘Elphaba’ – but really Dylan Pollard – is a real gun on the piano, and the creative partnership between him and Palmer is fruitful from both a comedy and musical perspective. Even so, My Precious! is plenty funny even without the legally distinct Gollum that goes miles. Palmer sprinkles in plenty of genuinely gut-busting jokes, with hyper-local and pop cultural references all mixed into this most unusual meal of a show.

By virtue of its premise, My Precious! The Cabaret probably isn’t for everybody. However, it’s got a wide enough net of appeal that if you find yourself interested in any one of its niches – Gollum impressions, jabs at Australian politicians and quirky cabaret – then it’s hard to imagine you won’t at least be cracking a few smiles.